The End: Mike Arrington 'Has Decided' to Leave AOL and TechCrunch

After almost two weeks of white-knuckle twists and turn in the official story about Michael Arrington's post-venture fund status at AOL, the company has finally released an official statement that TechCrunch's founder and editor "has decided to move on" and co-editor Erick Schonfeld will be taking over. The statement in full (via TechCrunch, who broke the news):

The TechCrunch acquisition has been a success for AOL and for our shareholders, and we are very excited about its future. Michael Arrington, the founder of TechCrunch has decided to move on from TechCrunch and AOL to his newly formed venture fund. Michael is a world-class entrepreneur and we look forward to supporting his new endeavor through our investment in his venture fund. Erick Schonfeld has been named the editor of TechCrunch. TechCrunch will be expanding its editorial leadership in the coming months.

We can't wait to read the blog post Arrington will inevitably write explaining his side of the saga.

Update: Arrington has so far chosen to express himself in his choice of clothing. TechCrunch writer Alexia Tsotsis tweeted this photo of her (tired-looking) former boss wearing a t-shirt that reads "Unpaid Blogger" at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Monday:

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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Adam Clark Estes is a former writer for The Wire. He has also written for The Huffington Postand Vice.